Winning.

Because, when you strip away all of the finery and the rhetoric, that is always the prime objective in democratic politics. Winning.

Winning, so that you get power. And when you have power, you have the ability to get things done. And that’s when you can turn your ideas into reality — when, one hopes, you can better people’s lives, and create a better future for all.

That’s what it’s all about: Winning. Simple.

To win in Canada, you need to attract the support of a majority. That’s how it is in any democracy. Majority rules.

So, these are the things we know about the Canadian majority — things that have been irrefutably, indisputably, inarguably shown to be true in election after election after election. Six things.

One: The majority in Canada dislike extremism. When given the choice, Canadian voters will always favor the middle path, between the extremes on the Left and the Right. That may be a bit less exciting, but that’s where you will always find them: in the unexciting middle.

Two: The majority of voters in this country don’t like ideology at the expense of common sense. Unlike America, where bumper-sticker politics increasingly dominates, Canadian voters still prefer moderation. And they intensely dislike doctrinaire ideologues and polemicists.

Three: The majority of Canadians do not hate government. During the pandemic, they have accepted the notion that no other entity — not the private sector, not organized labor, not wealthy individuals — can acquire vaccines and PPE better than governments, or organize society to survive a deadly global pandemic. God knows the governments are imperfect, but Canadians just don’t object to government in the way that Americans do. The results are shown in our respective COVID body counts.

Four: The majority of voters in this country are not fussed about social issues. Not anymore. After same-sex marriages happened, after women won the right to control their own bodies, voters noted that society did not collapse. We did not descend into anarchy. Life went on.

Five: The Canadian majority favors tolerance and diversity — for the simple reason that we are now a much more diverse country. We are no longer the white, Anglo-Saxon redoubt that we were mere decades ago. The majority of Canadians prefer political leaders who are like them — diverse, and favoring diversity.

Sixth and final point: The majority of Canadian voters will always vote for the common good over dominance by the rich and powerful. They do not venerate billionaires in the way that Americans do. They believe in the wisdom and the durability of everyday people, not mega-rich blowhards who have never had to worry about paying the rent or mortgage.

Now, some of you may not like what the majority prefers. That’s fine. In a democracy, nobody wins every argument.

But if you’re a sentient being, you know that it’s the truth. You know what the reality is in Canadian politics, too. The majority rules, and the majority favor driving in the middle of the road, not in the ditches. You don’t get far when you’re in the ditch.

You also know where I’m going with all this, so some of you are already readying yourselves to say the predictable stuff: That Conservatives shouldn’t ever listen to Jean Chretien‘s former special assistant. That, if we get a real conservative as leader, we’ll win.

Listen to me or don’t. That’s up to you. But I’m actually motivated by the same thing you are: We both believe Canadian democracy needs the Conservative Party of Canada to get its damn act together. Here’s why.

At the present time, our federal government is led by a man who has engaged in casual corruption, more than once. We are led by a man who has repeatedly engaged in parlor-room racism. A man who professes to be a feminist, and then was credibly accused of sexual assault, by a victim whose allegations have never been refuted. Any one of those things is disqualifying, to me.

This writer may have worked on many Liberal campaigns in the past, but I believe that the Trudeau Liberal Party is tired and old and venal. They need some time in opposition to reform and renew. Desperately.

That won’t ever happen until the Conservative Party gets its act together. And that particularly won’t happen if the Conservative Party continues to embrace leaders and policies who are opposed by the majority of Canadians.

And that won’t happen as long as Conservatives put hard-right ideology ahead of winning elections, either.

Because, you know, there’s a name for those who favor ideology over anything else. Those who prefer purity over compromise. Those who favor confrontation over consensus.

We call them losers.

Comments (37)

The problem with the Conservative Party of Canada is that it is the Conservative Parties of Canada.

That’s the real dilemma facing the Official Opposition. That’s the real reason they ousted Erin O’Toole as leader. And that’s why they are unlikely to win any elections anytime soon.

The Conservative Party of Canada isn’t singular. It’s plural. It is literally two political visions — one Western-based, rural and angry. The other: central Canadian, urban and progressive.

They weren’t always like that.   But now they are just that: two warring factions pretending to be one political alternative — the Reform one, and the Progressive Conservative one.   Two siblings living under the same roof, hating each other, resenting each other, unable to agree on anything.

Erin O’Toole made many mistakes.   That’s clear.   

But ignoring the civil war within Canada’s conservative movement wasn’t one of them.   In fact, O’Toole regularly attempted to be on both sides of the civil war — on carbon taxes, on vaccinations, on assault weapons, on social issues.   On everything.

His big mistake was that he was up and down like a toilet seat.   He tried to make everyone happy, and thereby ended up making everyone unhappy.   Just this week, we saw yet more evidence of that.

First, he said he wasn’t going to meet with the Omniconvoy truckers.   Then he said he would.   Then he condemned them for desecrating the War Memorial.   At the end of it, you couldn’t be certain if he wanted to arrest the truckers, or drive a rig onto the Hill himself.

His predecessor, Andrew Scheer, made the same mistake. He’d profess to be a tolerant, diverse, modern conservative – and then he’d sit down for an interview with Faith Goldy, who the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai Brith has termed a “white supremacist,” quote unquote.

Under former prime minister Stephen Harper, the modern-era Conservative Party was two parties, too. Harper — being the guy who brought together the warring conservative factions with Peter MacKay (more on him in a moment) — knew that he was the father of two siblings who hated each other’s guts.

Not so subtly, he’d signal which side he favoured — expelling MPs who tried to reignite the abortion and gay marriage debate.   Spending like a proverbial sailor during the great global financial crash of 2008-2009.   Reaching a residential school settlement with Indigenous victims.

But occasionally, he’d throw a bone to the troglodyte faction, to keep them in line: stuff like the “barbaric practices” hotline (which cost them power and should still serve as a lesson they still haven’t learned).

But mainly, Harper kept the two conservative parties in line with fear.   Members of his caucus were afraid of him.   They knew he was smarter and more strategic than they were, and they knew what would happen to them if they got out of line.

Erin O’Toole didn’t inspire fear.   He inspired contempt and derision.   

He was, as I liked to say, remarkably unremarkable.   We never knew what his passion was.   We never got to see what was inside his heart, in his gut.   He tried to be all things to all people, and ended up being nothing at all.  

Where does the Conservative Party go from here?   

I suspect they’ll reject urban, moderate, experienced choices like MacKay — who was always a better choice than O’Toole — and embrace anger.   They’ll go with one of the Opposition MPs who are good at opposition, but you can’t ever picture in government.   As prime minister.

As he packs up at Stornoway, O’Toole can comfort himself with one thing: it was never going to work out.

Because the one party you ran to lead, Mr. O’Toole?

It’s two parties.

— Kinsella was special assistant to Jean Chretien

Comments (64)

Let’s do a recap, shall we?

People partying on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

People defacing the statue of Terry Fox.

People breaking into the Shepherds of Good Hope to take food that was being prepared for poor people.

People assaulting and abusing reporters who were there to cover the protest. People assaulting and abusing homeless people.

People blocking ambulance crews, apparently leading to at least one preventable trauma patient’s death.

People urinating and defecating all over the place — urinating on the War Memorial, defecating on the property of a family displaying the Pride flag.

People threatening teenagers at fast food places because the teenagers politely asked them to wear a mask.

People parking wherever they want, and screaming at passersby, and having drinking parties around the clock.

And, of course, people displaying swastikas and Confederate flags and calls for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to be assassinated.

That’s just some of the stuff that went on in Ottawa this weekend. That’s based on what I have seen with my own eyes, or from uncontradicted news reports by organizations like this one.

It happened. It’s real. And it’s been condemned by everyone from a Liberal prime minister to a Progressive Conservative Ontario premier.

Oh, by the by, don’t start telling us in the media how to do our damn job. Our job is not to provide sunny ways reports about the majority of people at the protest obeying the law.

That’s not news. People are supposed to obey the law. Obeying the law and acting like a civilized human being is not news, ever.

But when someone holds up a Nazi flag near Parliament, and thousands of other people don’t do a damn thing about it? That’s news.

As for the suggestion that we are on the Trudeau government’s payroll? That’s more than laughable. That’s a lie of Nazi-like proportions, frankly. A big one.

This newspaper has relentlessly documented the failings of Justin Trudeau‘s government. And this writer, to be blunt, does more to bring about the end of the Trudeau government — in a single afternoon — than most of you would do in 10 lifetimes.

So, take some responsibility, folks. If you were there, or you supported those who were there — and if you are in any way honest — you know that this weekend looked really, really ugly to a lot of regular, unaffiliated voters. Normal people. Not just so-called Lefties.

Now, most of the protesters were not there because of vaccines. They were there to oppose Justin Trudeau‘s government. That’s fine. I oppose it, too.

But here’s the problem, Trudeau critics: The people you have now alienated are the people you needed to reach.

Since you are not going to dethrone him with some nutbar manifesto removing all elected Members of Parliament, and then creating a whackadoodle regime where we are governed by an unelected Governor General and some unelected senators. That is crazy. It is insane.

No, if you are going to remove Justin Trudeau, you needed to reach other voters, folks. You need to make those voters less enthusiastic about him. In an election.

But this weekend‘s events in Ottawa didn’t do that. This weekend‘s events did the exact opposite. This weekend’s events turned many, many normal people off.

Until someone comes up with an alternative, we live in a democracy. To win in a democracy, you need to win over the majority.

You didn’t do that, trucker fans. You did the opposite.

And, along the way, you have re-elected Justin Trudeau.

Good job.

Comments (42)

Comments (2)